1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a workpiece feeder for separating, adjusting, and feeding workpieces and an adjustment-and-separation apparatus used with the workpiece feeder.
2. Description of Related Art
Workpiece feeders or parts feeders are used to feed small workpieces or parts into a production line to assemble the parts into products.
A standard parts feeder employs a vibration bowl. Into the vibration bowl, many parts are charged and the vibration bowl is continuously and finely vibrated to separate and align the parts. The separated and aligned parts are conveyed to a destination.
When many parts are charged into the vibration bowl and are continuously vibrated, the parts hit and rub one another or the bowl, to create dust such as particles and contaminants.
The parts feeder using the vibration bowl is employed in a manufacturing line to manufacture, for example, head suspensions that are installed in magnetic disk drives.
Recent magnetic disk drives must drive high-density, large-capacity magnetic disks, and therefore, head suspensions for the magnetic disk drives must be clean. For this, particles or contaminants caused in the manufacturing line must be minimized.
In connection with this, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publications No. 2000-238912 and No. 2003-095420 propose parts feeders capable of reducing the production of particles or contaminants.
These related arts, however, are unable to prevent parts in a vibration bowl from hitting and rubbing one another or the bowl.